PW's Audiobook Blog

Monthly Archives: August 2012

As promised, today we announce the winner of The Great Audiobook Giveaway: Summer 2012.

But before we do, let’s (1) give another big thanks to all the audio publishers that donated audiobooks and partnered with Listen Up and PW to make this contest possible; and (2) remind everyone about all the amazing audiobooks they’ve registered to win:

Savages (Tantor Media)

Fifty Shames of Earl Grey (Tantor Media)

Resilience (HighBridge Audio)

Heading Out to Wonderful (HighBridge Audio)

Grandad, There’s a Head on the Beach (HighBridge Audio)

Black Mask Stories: The Corpse Didn’t Kick (HighBridge Audio)

Life of Pi (HighBridge Audio)

The Hobbit (HighBridge Audio)

The Devil’s Right Hand (Brilliance Audio)

The Secret Piano (Brilliance Audio)

Fangoria Volume 1: Dreadtime Stories (AudioGO)

Criminal (AudioGO)

Blood Line (HarperAudio)

The Great Escape (HarperAudio)

Get Some Headspace (Macmillan Audio)

Tigers in Red Weather (Hachette Audio)

I, Michael Bennett (Hachette Audio)

Fearless (christianaudio)

The Folded Earth (Dreamscape Media)

Wallflower in Bloom (Dreamscape Media)

The Age of Miracles (Random House Audio)

Yes, Chef (Random House Audio)

Gold (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Creole Belle (Simon & Schuster Audio)

The Next Best Thing (Simon & Schuster Audio)

The Chaperone (Penguin Audio)

I Hate Everyone…Starting with Me (Penguin Audio)

A History of the Olympics (Naxos AudioBooks)

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Naxos AudioBooks)

Great American Westerns Vol 1 (GraphicAudio)

The Highwayman (GraphicAudio)

The 39 Clues: Operation Trinity (Scholastic Audio)

Wolves of the Beyond: Spirit Wolf (Scholastic Audio)

Marty McGuire Digs Worms! (Scholastic Audio)

Scott’s Last Expedition: The Journals of Robert Scott (CSA Word, distributed by Trafalgar Square Publishing from IPG)

A Room of One’s Own (CSA Word, distributed by Trafalgar Square Publishing from IPG)

So, without further ado, from the more than 500 entries from audiobook fans all over the world, the randomly selected winner of The Great Audiobook Giveaway: Summer 2012 is…

Congratulations, Trish! We’ll contact you directly — and we hope you’re ready to listen to A LOT of books!

Thanks to everyone who entered. We’ll be doing another Great Audiobook Giveaway this Fall — so stay tuned for details.

Like sands through the hourglass, so is The Great Audiobook Giveaway. And, as of this morning, you’ve got a mere 24 hours to register to win a massive prize pack of audiobooks from some of the industry’s biggest and best audio publishers.

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s how you register: Simply leave a comment on our Great Audiobook Giveaway Post — tell us about one of your favorite audiobooks or audio narrators. Once you comment, you’re registered for the giveaway. Want to up your chances of winning? Leave another comment. Or, leave another five comments. There’s no limit to the number of times you can enter to win.

What will you win? I’m glad you asked. We’ve partnered with a host of great audio publishers — special thanks to all of you for your help and donations! — to put together an amazing prize that includes the following titles:

Savages (Tantor Media)

Fifty Shames of Earl Grey (Tantor Media)

Resilience (HighBridge Audio)

Heading Out to Wonderful (HighBridge Audio)

Grandad, There’s a Head on the Beach (HighBridge Audio)

Black Mask Stories: The Corpse Didn’t Kick (HighBridge Audio)

Life of Pi (HighBridge Audio)

The Hobbit (HighBridge Audio)

The Devil’s Right Hand (Brilliance Audio)

The Secret Piano (Brilliance Audio)

Fangoria Volume 1: Dreadtime Stories (AudioGO)

Criminal (AudioGO)

Blood Line (HarperAudio)

The Great Escape (HarperAudio)

Get Some Headspace (Macmillan Audio)

Tigers in Red Weather (Hachette Audio)

I, Michael Bennett (Hachette Audio)

Fearless (christianaudio)

The Folded Earth (Dreamscape Media)

Wallflower in Bloom (Dreamscape Media)

The Age of Miracles (Random House Audio)

Yes, Chef (Random House Audio)

Gold (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Creole Belle (Simon & Schuster Audio)

The Next Best Thing (Simon & Schuster Audio)

The Chaperone (Penguin Audio)

I Hate Everyone…Starting with Me (Penguin Audio)

A History of the Olympics (Naxos AudioBooks)

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Naxos AudioBooks)

Great American Westerns Vol 1 (GraphicAudio)

The Highwayman (GraphicAudio)

The 39 Clues: Operation Trinity (Scholastic Audio)

Wolves of the Beyond: Spirit Wolf (Scholastic Audio)

Marty McGuire Digs Worms! (Scholastic Audio)

Scott’s Last Expedition: The Journals of Robert Scott (CSA Word, distributed by Trafalgar Square Publishing from IPG)

A Room of One’s Own (CSA Word, distributed by Trafalgar Square Publishing from IPG)

The winner will be announced right here on August 31 — tomorrow! — so good luck and happy listening!

”I hate the slogans in cheaper restaurants, like ‘have it your way.’ My way would be in a better restaurant where the tables and chairs aren’t chained to the floor.” The ineffable Joan Rivers does, indeed, hate everything, and this hilarious account details all the reasons why. In this audio edition, Rivers proves very quickly that age has nothing on her and that she hasn’t lost even a half step as a performer. Her delivery is perfect, her comedic timing as strong as it’s ever been, and she reads with all the passion and inspired vision of her live performances. It’s easy to listen to Rivers ramble on about everything that pisses her off, because more often than not–despite her star status–most people will likely agree with everything she says. Be it her hatred of cities where people are nice or her loathing of the Happy Meal, Rivers is equally passionate and opinionated on every subject she discusses. Hilarious and undeniably original. A Berkley hardcover. (June)

Climbing two places to #2 is Kill Alex Cross (read by Andre Braugher and Zach Grenier), while Michael Connelly’s The Drop (narrated by Len Cariou) remains at #3 and E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey (narrated by Becca Battoe) drops to #4. Rounding out the top five is Sue Grafton’s U Is for Undertow (narrated by Judy Kaye).

And for everyone wondering about Bill O’Reilly’s omnipresent Killing Lincoln (narrated by the author), it celebrated its 47th week on our Audio Bestseller List in the #8 spot.

The latest batch of PW’saudio reviews is in print and online. And that means it’s time for our monthly Audio Reviews Spotlight.Let’s start with the fiction side with Alan Cumming’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The audiobook — which is based on his live, one-man show — is available from Simon & Schuster.

See below for our Starred Review, and don’t forget to check out all of PW’s latest audio reviews RIGHT HERE.

Shakespeare’s tragedy about the ill-fated thane of Cawdor is brought to life via this one-man interpretation from Alan Cumming. Motivated by his scheming wife, Macbeth lusts for and then takes power, which leads to regicide and his own undoing. Building upon his performance in the audio edition of A.J. Hartley and David Hewson’s Macbeth: A Novel, Cumming executes a captivating solo performance of this classic play. With an authentic Scottish accent, Cumming ably embodies Lord Macbeth. He shifts from character to character seamlessly, capturing the tone, attitude, and emphasis of each, while providing an increasing intensity that conveys the reprehensible, irreparable nature of the title character’s actions. In addition to embracing the various characters, Cumming’s powerful performance even elevates the play’s stage directions, which–rather than feeling like crude interruptions to the dialogue–slip in smoothly like the knife used to slay King Duncan. (July)

Audible is producing an audio edition of Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl — and holding open auditions to cast the perfect narrator.

Check out THIS LINK for all the details and take a peek at these notes from the director:

“Helen Gurley Brown had a remarkably sexy voice — see her interviews on Youtube! Part Southern girl, part uptown Manhattan. No wonder she was famous for getting her conquests to agree to anything over the phone! She had heart, wit, eccentricity, and some definite camp. Imagine RuPaul crossed with Kathleen Turner in Body Heat! What we need is a reader who will know when to be in on the joke, who can narrate the edgier sections…with a wink and a nudge, a little arch.”

To celebrate the release of Rick Riordan’s new audiobook, The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diariess — a collection of short stories featuring characters from the author’s Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus universes — Random House Audio and Listening Library have released two audio excerpts.

Check out the book’s introduction from Riordan:

And give a listen the beginning of the first story, “The Diary of Luke Castellan:”

The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries is narrated by Jesse Bernstein, Joshua Swanson, Nick Chamian, and Aaron Groben.

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Listen Up is dedicated to all things audio. We’ll be bringing you the latest audiobook news and reviews, casting coups, innovations in marketing, Q&As with authors and narrators, audio clips, and plenty of recommendations.

For more information or to pitch a story, contact Adam Boretz at aboretz@publishersweekly.com.